The overlapping legal troubles of former President Trump and Hunter Biden have often been juxtaposed as evidence of a “two-tier justice system” interested in ousting Republicans and protecting Democrats from criminal prosecution.
Trump’s 34 criminal convictions in Manhattan two weeks ago reinforced the GOP-led rhetoric – proof that the scales of justice were tipped against them.
But when President Biden’s son was convicted by a Delaware jury on Tuesday of three federal gun crimes, those same provocateurs were not impressed.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) nicknamed Hunter Biden “the sacrificial lamb of the Deep State,” while Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) called the conviction “kind of dumb to be honest.” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) called Trump’s legal troubles “a totally different situation.” And Trump himself stated that the trial was a “distraction” from the “real crimes” of the Biden family.
The two historic convictions, handed down by juries just weeks apart, have produced two harsh narratives – one that derides the American justice system as rigged and another that insists it is not, despite ongoing efforts to undermine it.
“We have never seen anything like this – in a short space of time, the prosecution of a former president and the conviction of a former president, followed by the conviction of the only remaining [son] of a sitting president, where there is this scenario of widespread distrust in the legal system,” said William Howell, professor of politics at the University of Chicago.
“Obviously we have had other moments in presidential history when tough choices have been presented to the public, but the character of this choice is entirely new,” he said.
Republican claims about legal warfare, or the use of legal systems against them, have been growing for nearly a decade. While the Justice Department investigated the Trump campaign’s 2016 ties to Russia for more than half of his presidency, it called the probe a “witch hunt.” hundreds of times – the term is now one of the pillars of its messages.
Trump’s allegations of unfair treatment under the law escalated as he came under scrutiny by federal and state authorities, ultimately leading to four criminal charges and a series of civil matters after he left office. He faced his first criminal charge last year – the Manhattan silence case, in which he was ultimately convicted – with anger, describing the charges as “an insult to our country.”
“The only crime I committed was to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” Trump he said on April 4, 2023, following his arraignment.
Hunter Biden’s legal problems began around the same time as Trump’s. The president’s son announced in December 2020 that he was under investigation by the Department of Justice, although unnamed sources confirmed to multiple media outlets that the investigation began in 2018.
Last year, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware who was leading the Hunter Biden investigation, as special counsel to continue his work with wider discretion. Weiss was one of the only Trump-appointed attorneys general that Biden, when he took office, kept in place because of the investigation into his son.
Two sets of federal charges, from the Weiss weapons investigation and the tax investigation, were filed against Hunter Biden last year, just months apart. After a failed plea deal and subsequent trial, he was convicted Tuesday in the first of those cases, which accused him of lying about his illicit drug use when buying a gun in 2018 and obtaining it illegally for 11 days afterward. The second case, relating to alleged violations of tax legislation, could go to trial in September – even in the heat of the general election.
“If the argument was that there are two levels of justice, then the Biden case — that is, the Hunter Biden case — would never have been brought to trial,” said Michael Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor. “The legal agreement would have been finalized, the case would have been swallowed up by some motion practice or some technical detail. But because it went to trial and because he was ultimately found guilty, the argument that there are two levels of justice falls by the wayside.
“It’s like throwing sand in the air on the beach,” he added. “It just dissolves.”
The messages that Trump and Hunter Biden, like their father, espoused after their respective convictions diverged drastically.
In his first remarks following his three-count conviction, Hunter Biden thanked his family for their “love and support” and highlighted his journey through addiction, which played a central role in the trial.
“Recovery is possible by the grace of God and I am blessed to experience this gift one day at a time,” he said.
President Biden said he would accept the outcome of the case and “continue to respect the judicial process” as his son considers an appeal, building on an earlier promise not to pardon his son if convicted.
Trump, however, turned to retribution. The former president told multiple media outlets that it was “very possible” that Democrats could face lawsuits in the future, that he had “every right to go after them” given his own accusation, and that “sometimes revenge can be justified.”
His allies made similar comments. Less than an hour after the verdict, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) issued a call to arms: “It’s time for Red State AGs and DAs to get busy.”
“I think that political rhetoric is undermining, to some extent, the rule of law, as well as the credibility of the courts, both the courts of first instance, the courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. And I tie that to the political campaigns and the politicians who are doing this more than anything else,” Weinstein said.
Garland warned in a Washington Post op-ed Tuesday — published before a House vote to hold the agency chief in contempt and before any verdict in the Hunter Biden case had been decided — that the escalation of political attacks against the Justice Department has made “heinous threats of violence” common. against the department.
“The continued and baseless attacks on Justice Department employees are dangerous to people’s safety. They are dangerous to our democracy. This must stop,” Garland wrote.
Howell said efforts to sow anger and distrust “at every turn” would have “real consequences,” only one of which could be an increase in political violence.
“It encourages people to run to their corners, hunker down and treat their political opponents as ‘others’ who need to be managed and distanced,” he said. “And these are real consequences for our country.”
Despite the proximity and politically controversial nature of the two trials, the judicial system so far is “holding its own,” Weinstein said.
“I’m not sure it’s a two-sided justice system,” he said. “It appears that the justice system, however archaic, difficult and problematic it may be, is actually working.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
